


Kinda forgot to ask you somethin'

by Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Anxiety, Cute, M/M, a little bit fluff, airplane au, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3535967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire/pseuds/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow, Hazel talks Nico into flying to Italy to visit her (with a little help from Piper), but he'd actually rather wear a flower crown in public than fly across the Atlantic. you might have guessed who he sits next to during the flight, though. that's right, Will of course :3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kinda forgot to ask you somethin'

**Author's Note:**

> i feel like this is sort of a classic au, one being afraid of flying and the other one comforting him. but whatever, it was fun so yeah enjoy c:

Nico was getting more and more anxious about this. How could he have let anyone talk him into flying just to visit Hazel? Nico rarely said no to his half-sister, but he would have this time if no one had dragged Piper into it to give him a last push.

That was so low of Hazel, but Nico had promised. He didn’t want to let her down by cancelling it, so he was trying to go through with this. Ironically, Hazel was in Italy, which was where Nico and his mother and sister had moved from nine years ago. They had taken an airplane then, too. Unfortunately.

He shook the thought aside and continued along the narrow aisle between the seats. He was already regretting this, but he found his seat and plopped down in it, next to a blonde guy about his own age. Nico checked his watch; five minutes until they’d start moving. Now he’d only have to sit here and let the anxiety grow.

He made a mental sarcastic “yay”.

“Excuse me”, a voice to his right said, and Nico turned around to look at the person he was sitting next to. He was kind of good-looking, with yellow-ish curls, tanned skin with freckles and sky blue eyes. Muscles too, Nico noticed.

“Are you okay?” the stranger asked. “You look kinda… nervous. Like really”.

He looked sincerely concerned, and Nico decided to spare him the glare he usually sent people whenever they talked to him (he was probably too anxious to produce a good one anyway).

“Probably because I am”, he answered, trying to calm his nerves.

“You afraid of flyin’?”

Nico nodded, no longer sure that his voice would be steady if he used it.

“It’s gonna be fine, ya know”. The boy smiled.

 _Yeah, that’s what they said last time_ , Nico thought, but he didn’t say the words out loud. The stranger put his hand on the armrest between them, palm up.

“I can hold your hand if you want? I’ve heard it might help”, he said invitingly, but Nico wasn’t really the holding-hands-with-strangers type.

“I dunno…”

At that moment, the plane started moving, and Nico abandoned his own personal-space-rules and grabbed the offered hand, holding on to it for bare life. The captain said something over the speakers, but Nico didn’t listen. Now he really wished he’d given a dam about Hazel and stayed in New York, were the ground was solid and he couldn’t suddenly fall down from the sky and end his life in a massive explosion of metal wreck and body parts.

“Relax, we’re not even off the ground yet”, came the soothing voice of the boy next to him. He gave Nico’s hand a light squeeze, and although all of Nico’s personal rules told him to let go, he didn’t. He was quite convinced he’d fall down from the sky if he did so, even though they hadn’t left the airport.

Nico pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his forehead on them, eyes closed. The plane gathered speed, and Nico could picture the ruined stew that was his insides right now.

“Oh God”, he mumbled to himself as the plane went even faster down the runway. He could hear himself spilling out a whole series of cuss-words as they took off into the air, but he didn’t really pay attention to himself. Nico didn’t look up until the plane had stabilized in the air and the uncomfortable pressure on his eardrums had relieved a bit.

“Uh,” the boy next to him said, “I’m sorry, but if you still wanna hold my hand I’ll have to switch it or I think I might lose my fingers”.

Nico realized he was still clutching a stranger’s hand and quickly let go of it, feeling his face heat.

“Shit, uh, sorry”, he muttered in the process, but the boy laughed.

“It’s okay”. He stretched his fingers, trying to make them function normally again. “But jeeze, do you work out or something? I mean, I’ve been helping out on a lot of child deliveries, but those women don’t even beat your grip”.

Nico blushed again, hoping he didn’t actually hurt the guy.

“I do sword-fighting”, he said as an answer to the half-rhetorical question, happy to take his mind off the fact that he was way too high up in the air right now. The boy’s face lit up in a grin.

“Awesome! I didn’t know you could do that anymore, yanno. I do archery, though”.

As this boy kept the conversation going, he was actually able to make Nico forget his anxiety for a while. He wasn’t really the kind of person Nico would have seen himself talking much to, but he liked it. He was full of energy, had an almost constant grin on his face and a very annoying but gentle personality.

“Hey, what’s your name anyway?” he suddenly asked.

“Nico”.

“I’m Will. So Nico,” he said, tasting the name, “why are you going to Italy?”

“Visiting my half-sister. She’s studying there”.

Before Will could reply, someone spoke over the speakers.

“ _Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. There will be a light turbulence up ahead, but I can assure you that it will be nothing to worry about, and ask you to remain calm in your seats. It will only last a few minutes. Thank you_ ”.

No way. Nico had checked the weather. There wasn’t going to be any wind, he knew he’d checked it. Guess you couldn’t trust the weather over the Atlantic. He felt the blood drain from his face as these thoughts travelled through his head.

“No way. Nononono, absolutely not. How can this happen? Why is this fucking happening to me?”

He muttered denials over and over to himself, hiding his face in his hands. There was a light pressure on his shoulder, and he realized it was Will’s hand.

“Hey, it’s okay, Nico. It happens all the time, it’s nothing to worry about”.

“No, you don’t understand,” Nico said desperately, feeling the panic tight in his chest. Then, the entire airplane shook, and to Nico it felt like an apocalypse. His body was shaking to the point where it was painful but he couldn’t control it. He just gripped the armrests until his knuckles ached and forced himself to breathe.

“It’s alright. I get that you’re scared, but it’s gonna be fine. Trust me”.

Will kept talking to him, even offering his hand again, which Nico appreciated despite his panic. When the plane shook again, Nico let out a low whimper, but he was freaking out so hard he wasn’t even embarrassed.

“Think about something else”, Will offered.

“Like what?”

“Like what I’m about to tell you of how I once shot my teacher in the foot and almost drowned the school in cotton candy. Accidentally, of course”.

Nico looked at him, mildly curious despite his panic, and the boy grinned.

“That’s more like it. It was two years ago – and this is a true story – …”

Will was a good storyteller. Nico doubted a whole truck of drugs could make him stop panicking right now, so the fact that Will made it bearable was impressive. The turbulence was over rather quickly – at least that was what Will said, Nico wouldn’t say “quickly” – and Nico felt the knot in his stomach slowly loosen up.

He remembered Will’s hand this time, and quickly let go of it when his head and insides had stopped spinning. When Will was done with his story, he looked at Nico.

“Can I ask why you’re so afraid of flyin’? You don’t have to answer”.

Nico wasn’t very eager to tell him why, but he figured maybe he owed Will this one. After all, the guy had let Nico almost break his fingers. Twice.

“Did you know that one of the airplanes flying this reversed distance crashed right outside the coast of the US nine years ago? With five survivors out of 203?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean-”

“I was on that one, Will”.

Will went quiet, shocked eyes staring at Nico. For once, he seemed to be lost for words.

“My mother and sister both died, and I got out with barely a scratch”.

“I’m… I’m really sorry, Nico”, Will finally managed. “I know it’s not like me, but I don’t really know what else to say”.

“You don’t have to say anything”.

Will nodded. He was quiet for a few seconds. “Then how on earth did anyone manage to get you on this flight of all?”

“My half-sister. Hazel. And she pulled her friend Piper into it too, cuz she’s got some wicked talent when it comes to talking people into doing something. I didn’t know it would be this bad though”.

Nico leaned forward to put his forehead against the seat in front of him. He closed his eyes and sat like that, a mixture of exhaustion, anxiety, sadness and a feeling of being utterly powerless washing through him.

“Ya know”, Will said, “I think I’ve got some sleeping-pills if you want. They’re almost instant and only lasts a couple of hours”.

“Yes, please”, Nico accepted, and Will put a little white pill in his hand after searching through his own pockets.

“Don’t dry swallow it. Take some water”.

“Why?”

Nico usually didn’t bother to wash pills down with water, he just swallowed them.

“ _Because_ , Nico, it can get stuck in the part of your throat that has no nerves so you don’t notice it, and then it burns a hole through the muscle underneath. Could be dangerous”.

“So is life”, Nico said, and gulped down the pill dry. “No one’s survived it yet”.

Will just shook his head, a smile playing on his lips, and Nico leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

***

The pill did help. It was a relief to have neither dreams nor nightmares escaping through the fog in Nico’s mind, and he was actually able to sleep properly. He was still sleepy when he woke up, and not eager to change his comfortable position. At least not until he noticed that he was sleeping on Will, of course.

The only thing that kept him from jumping back was the fact that Will was sleeping too, leaned against Nico. The armrest between them was removed, which had allowed Nico to lean his back against the front of Will’s shoulder, resting his head at the base of the other boy’s neck. Will had put his own head on top of Nico’s and had an arm behind his back.

Nico would have been embarrassed to the bone if Will had been awake right now, but it seemed like he wasn’t, and Nico let out a relieved sigh. He carefully slid away from the boy, trying his best not to wake him, and sat back down in his own seat. He wasn’t quite satisfied, though, because Will had been delightfully warm and the new air around Nico was not. Still, there was no way he was leaning back against the boy he had only known for a few hours, so he wrapped his jacket tighter around himself and sighed.

“Mornin’”.

Nico turned to see Will yawn and stretch his arms over his head. He turned to look at Nico who sat wrapped up in his aviator jacket.

“You look cold”.

Nico found it best not to reply.

“C’mere”, Will said, stretching out his arms towards Nico. Said boy glared at him.

“No way. I’ve known you for, like, five hours. I’m not hugging you”.

Will chuckled.

“Aw, you have already, Nico”.

Nico looked at him suspiciously. He had really hoped Will somehow didn’t know, but no suck luck.

“Maybe you woke up first, but you also fell asleep first, yanno”, Will grinned.

Nico let out a groan, which caused the other boy to laugh.

“Don’t worry. You’re cute when you sleep”.

Nico crossed his arms and huffed in an attempt to make the blush leave his face.

“I’m not cute”, he grumbled.

“You’re not making it any less true by doing that”.

“You’re an idiot”, Nico said, and turned around in his seat to sit with his back to Will, refusing to participate in this stupid conversation. He could hear Will chuckle behind him, but he didn’t say anything else, much to Nico’s relief.

***

Nico had been remotely nauseous for the past – how long had it been, six hours? It suddenly became too much, though, and he quickly excused himself to Will and headed for the bathroom in the back. Luckily, it was unoccupied, and Nico slammed the door shut behind him before the little content that was left in his stomach after so many hours finally came back up in reverse.

He felt like shit when he was done, and wished he could jump off this stupid airplane and get back to solid ground. He made his way back to his seat and sat down heavily.

“You alright?” Will asked.

“Yeah, fine”. Nico sighed and leaned his head back, eyes closed. “I just wanna get off this stupid thing”.

“You don’t look so good, though”.

“Thanks for noticing”.

Nico opened his eyes when a female voice addressed him from the other side.

“Would any of you like something to eat?”

It was a flight attendant pushing a trolley filled with drinks, sandwiches and all kinds of airplane-food. Nico was hungry – he hadn’t eaten in forever – but he doubted his stomach could keep a hold of anything at the moment. Especially crappy travel-food.

“I’ll pass”, he said, and closed his eyes again.

“Nico, you should eat something. I won’t believe it if you say you aint hungry, and besides, it’ll make you feel better”.

“Nausea disagrees”.

“But maybe-”

“Leave me alone, Will”, Nico cut him off, tired of his annoying arguments.

“I’m sorry, but your boyfriend is right. You should eat, it will help”, the lady in uniform said, and Nico almost choked.

“What?” he exclaimed, hoping for the possibility that he’d hear her wrong. The woman looked a little alarmed at his reaction.

“Well, eating a little usually helps…” she started, but Nico cut her off.

“No, not that. He’s not my boyfriend”, Nico explained, nodding towards Will. Said person was blushing, but he was also smiling and only looking a little uncomfortable.

“Oh”. The woman looked a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I just assumed… You just looked like a couple when you were asleep a few hours ago. I’m terribly sorry…”

Nico hid his face in his hands.

“Will, just order so the lady can leave”, he grumbled.

Will let out a little laugh and did as he was told, and the woman quickly moved along afterwards.

“How much longer will I be trapped inside this place?” Nico asked, and Will checked the clock on his phone.

“Two hours and forty-eight minutes, probably”, he said and stuffed some peanuts in his mouth. Nico groaned.

“C’mon, we’re almost three quarters of the way”, Will said in a cheery voice, obviously trying to lighten Nico’s mood, but failing. There was a little while where both of them were quiet.

“So here’s a really personal question”, Will announced. “And you don’t have to answer, I’m just curious”.

Nico narrowed his eyes at him, but waited for him to spill the question.

“Are you gay?”

Again, Nico almost choked on his air, and had to cough a few time before he could speak. He looked at Will.

“Is it that obvious?” he asked, not really seeing the point in lying when Will had probably guessed already. A grin spread on the other boy’s face.

“Yes”, he simply said, and returned his attention to his little pack of peanuts.

***

“Hey, wanna watch a movie with me?” Will asked a little while later, pulling a laptop and a small stack of DVD’s out of his bag.

“Um, yeah sure”, Nico said hesitantly.

He was bored out of his mind, but not in any mood to have a conversation with Will. Nico was starting to get a headache, and he suspected the boy next to him to be partly responsible. Will handed him an earbud, and Nico put it in his right ear as Will put his in his left.

“What do you wanna watch?”

Will spread four DVD’s out on his lap, but none of them were familiar to Nico. He didn’t usually watch a lot of movies, so he shrugged.

“I dunno. I haven’t seen any of them, you decide”.

“Really? Not even Pirates of the Caribbean?” Will asked in surprise, and Nico shook his head.

“That’s decided, then”, he said, and put the disc in his laptop. They settled back in their seats, and because of the shared earbuds they were a little too close for Nico’s liking, and he made sure to keep as much distance between the two of them as possible.

He quickly discovered that he liked this movie – especially the skeleton-curse thing. Will noticed him laughing at the scene that was probably supposed to be scary.

“What, you like skeletons?”

Nico shrugged. “What was it Jack said? ‘It’s interesting’”.

Will chuckled next to him before turning to the screen again.

“Right”.

For some reason, Nico always got very sleepy when watching movies, no matter how much he enjoyed them. He felt his eyes grow heavy about halfway through and tried to stay awake, determined not to fall asleep on Will again, but he eventually had to give in to unconsciousness.

 

“Nico”.

He was woken by the sound of his own name.

“Nico, wake up”.

Someone nudged his shoulder, which caused him to gain full consciousness, and he opened his eyes. Luckily, he wasn’t sleeping on Will this time, but the other boy’s face was way too close when he opened his eyes, and Nico jumped back in his seat. Will laughed.

“Don’t do that”, Nico complained while he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Sorry”. Will didn’t look sorry. “But you need to put your seatbelt on, we’re landing”.

“ _What_?”

Suddenly, Nico wasn’t so eager to get down. Well, he wanted to get down to the ground, but he really wanted to skip the process of _landing_. The relatively calm feeling he’d had during most of the flight had vanished, replaced by the familiar anxiety. Will seemed to pick up on his change of mood.

“Landing’s not so good, huh?”

Nico swallowed and shook his head, suddenly wide-awake. The plane started to descend, and Nico’s insides were suddenly very active again. He caught a glimpse of the landing process out of the little window, and had to close his eyes after grabbing hold of Will’s offered hand. He didn’t have time to think about that he was still breaking his own rules by holding an (almost-) stranger’s hand, because the plane was heading for the ground way too fast in Nico’s opinion.

He knew they were going to crash, he knew it, he knew it, he knew it.

“When we die, I’m gonna fucking kill that captain”, he mumbled through gritted teeth, feeling little beads of cold sweat form on his forehead.

“Don’t worry, Neeks”. Nico ignored the stupid nickname. “We’re safe on the ground in five minutes. And if not, I’ll let you kill the captain”, he added.

“Not helping”.

“Right, sorry. You can kill me too”.

Nico snorted – that was unintentional – and Will looked at him with a wry grin.

“Is the thought of killing me really that funny?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“Right now, it is”, Nico admitted, though he didn’t really mean it.

The plane hit the runway with a bump, and Nico sat completely frozen in his seat while clutching the armrest and Will’s hand even harder, not daring to move. He sat still, ignoring his body starting to ache, until the plane had stopped completely. People started milling out, but Nico remained in his seat, trying to steady his breathing.

“Oh my god”.

Nico ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily, relief flooding through his body when he realized they actually hadn’t crashed, and they were back on the ground.

“That went well enough, right?”

“Yeah, guess it could’ve been worse”.

They were the only people left inside now, except for a couple of women in the back. When he had calmed himself enough to stop his trembling, Nico stood up.

“Let’s get out of here”.

He grabbed the small bag he’d kept under his seat and walked down the aisle between seats, Will right behind him. He mumbled a ‘bye’ to the woman seeing them off and dashed down the steps until he finally had his feet planted on solid ground. He would have lied down to embrace it if there hadn’t been anyone around.

He and Will walked together to pick up their luggage, and then further outside to get cabs. Two already stood waiting, and Nico turned to Will a bit awkwardly, not sure what to say.

“Uh, bye… I guess”, he said, and Will offered him a small smile.

“Yeah. Bye, Nico”.

Nico got into the back of his cab, not really knowing how he felt about just leaving Will, and it drove off after he driver had received Hazel’s address.

Hardly a minute after Nico had made his way inside the apartment and was met by an over-happy half-sister, the doorbell rang. Hazel went to open while Nico was on his way to the kitchen to satisfy his starving stomach.

“Nico?” Hazel called from the door, and Nico poked his head out of the kitchen to see what she wanted. “It’s for you”, she said, and Nico frowned.

He went to answer it while Hazel retreated, giving him a strange look. Will was outside the door, grinning sheepishly.

“Hi, um, I kinda forgot to ask you somethin’…”

He rubbed the back of his neck while speaking.

“Ask what?”

“Can I have your number?”

Nico hadn’t expected that, and he just stood there like an idiot a few seconds before he gathered himself.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah sure”.

Before he could retreat to find something to write on and with, Will handed him his phone.

“Just write it here”, he said. Nico did, and then handed it back.

“How did you find me? I don’t think I told you the address”, Nico asked.

“Just followed your cab”.

Nico smiled. “Of course you did”.

Will was still grinning sheepishly. “I’ll call ya tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Bye”.

“Bye, Neeks”.

“Who was that?” Hazel asked as soon as Nico had closed the door.

“Will. You should thank him, by the way”, Nico said.

“Why?”

Nico offered her a light smile. “Because he’s the reason I haven’t murdered you for making me fly over here”.

**Author's Note:**

> i love comments, so feel free to say something^^


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